I have a friend who has changed a great deal. He has become more charismatic. He and his friends see God in everything and everywhere. They see visions and interpret them. They see events in their lives as messages from God. I got a speck in my eye (for real) and my friend is convinced that God was telling me something, though he couldn’t tell me at that time what the message was. This episode left me feeling very uncomfortable. If that speck was not sent by God into my eye, then what was happening to my friend? Where was he getting these ideas from?
As a result of this episode I have started to think about the role of fantasy in religion. I am more and more convinced that there is often a connection between the two. Deeply emotional religious experiences – dreams and visions – seem to be more dream than vision. Every day people claim to have received a special message concerning the end of the world and they turn out to be wrong. How many times have people posted to various web sites messages that claims contact between themselves and Michael of Nebadon, Gabriel and other special spiritual personalities? How many people have claimed that they have been given special spiritual authority from the highest levels of the universe administration? Too many to be real – that’s how many. They can’t all have talked with Jesus, can they? Not everyone can be the top dog on the planet. How much of these claims is fantasy? Some or all?
This passage from The Urantia Book page 1099 is something that stands out to me. “Altogether too much of the up rush of the memories of the unconscious levels of the human mind has been mistaken for divine revelations and spirit leadings.” Much of what we think is coming from God, may only be our own hopes and dreams bubbling to the surface. This is not a problem, as long as we don’t use our dreams to manipulate people. Often what is advertised as prophecy and visioning is really a grab for power. After reading some of the timeline from the Urantia Book Fellowship site it seems that manipulation of key people in the Urantia Book movement has already happened and may be continuing to happen.
I believe that the movement is constantly under threat from our own fantasies. This is to be expected when one reads a book that mentions how many times celestial personalities have made contact with humans. And let’s face it; we all want to talk with an angel. But unfortunately it is a rare occurrence. Therefore what I am looking for in prophets is how they live. I want to see from others - as well as from myself - more of what The Urantia Book tells us is required to reach higher levels of spiritual understanding. Living Faith, Sincere Worship, Wholehearted and Unselfish Prayer. In other words, just plain living the life of Jesus. My friend the prophet hasn’t shown me enough of real spiritual living. Neither has the parade of prophets that stroll through Internet Forums. I guess I’ll just have to wait until Jesus drops by for a chat. Either that or I’ll just dream about it.
God bless you,
William Whitehead
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